Of Rum and Babies
by The One And Only Lobster
Summary: For Tokka Week. Toph, Sokka, and a bottle of rum have a not entirely serious conversation about babies.


A/N: This is unbeta'd and very strange. It was caused by a mixture of the prompt and the fact that I woke up with a stomach ache and feeling nauseous the day I wrote it (stupid food poisoning). Hopefully it's not too bizarre and it doesn't suck too badly.

Written for Tokka Week, Day Five, Prompt: Alcohol. Enjoy, and happy Tokka Week! :D

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Of Rum and Babies

Sokka was looking everywhere for his wife. He hadn't seen her since late morning, and he was starting to get worried. He had looked all over the house when, passing by the hall closet, he heard a faint noise: a sort of liquidy sound and maybe swallowing.

He opened the door to the closet and there was his wife with a bottle of rum. From the looks of it, she hadn't had very much yet. For a split second he was annoyed--they always drank together, why was she holding out on him?--but then he noticed faint signs that maybe she had been crying, though not recently. Maybe two or three hours ago. Nobody else would have noticed, but over the years he had come to understand his wife better than anybody else ever would.

He was suddenly worried. Toph almost never cried. Sokka thought he could count the times she had on one hand. He'd probably even still have fingers left over.

"Toph? What's wrong?" he asked with concern. "Why are you sitting alone in the--" he caught himself before he uttered the word _dark_, "--in the closet? And how come you didn't tell me you had rum?" he added in a slightly put out tone, trying to lighten the situation.

Toph sighed. "Forget the rum, Boomerang. It's not important."

Toph declaring rum to not be important? Something really _was_ wrong. He could count the times she had said _that_ before on precisely zero fingers. "All right then, what_ is_ important?" he asked, kneeling down.

Toph paused for a second before answering, as though trying to find the best way to phrase her response. "Remember how I woke up all sick this morning? And we thought it might be morning sickness? And you had me go see Katara to be sure?"

"Yeah, of course I remember. It was only about eight hours ago. What did Katara say?" he asked hopefully.

"It wasn't morning sickness," she answered bluntly. "Again."

"Oh," said Sokka, trying and failing to hide his disappointment. "Well, what was it, then? You were really sick, throwing up and everything. Is it contagious?"

"No, it's not contagious this time," Toph sighed. "I'm just allergic to sea prunes." _Thank the spirits_, she added silently.

"Oh, no! That's too bad. I know how much you liked them." Sokka had finally convinced Toph to try sea prunes the night before at dinner.

"Uh, yeah. Too bad." Toph had lied through her teeth and told him they were delicious.

Sokka sat down beside her in the closet and put his arm around her shoulders. "So that's why you're hiding in a closet drinking rum? Because you're not pregnant?"

"Well, it's not like I could be drinking rum if I _were_ pregnant," Toph pointed out.

"That's not what I meant, and you know it. It's just, you've never acted like this the other times this has happened."

"Yeah, well, the other six times--" Toph began.

"You kept count?" Sokka interjected incredulously.

"You didn't?" Toph replied in tones of equal incredulity. "I don't believe you sometimes."

"Sorry," Sokka said meekly. "Um, go on."

Toph continued to look annoyed for a moment, but went on, "Anyway, the other times this happened, we hadn't been married for five years and Mai and Zuko didn't already have a kid and Katara and Aang didn't have _three_. With another on the way. And Katara told me today that it might be twins."

Sokka blinked. "Twins? Really?" He paused to digest that for a moment before going on, "Well, anyway, we only hit five years last month, and you know Zuko needed an heir and Aang and Katara are just trying to rebuild the Air Nomads."

"And from the looks of things, they'll achieve that goal single-handedly," Toph said with a snort.

"Hey!" Sokka objected loudly, "Things I don't need to think about with regards to my baby sister!"

Toph laughed. "Sorry, Sokka. And now we're even."

"OK, you're right, I deserved that," he said with a smile. "Anyway, Toph, it's not a contest. I'm sure it'll happen when it's supposed to happen."

"I just wish it would happen faster," Toph said, frowning and taking a swig from the bottle.

Taking the bottle from Toph, Sokka took a swig as well, then grinned and said, "Well, we won't get anywhere just sitting in a closet drinking rum. But I know something we _can _do to improve our chances."

Toph considered for a moment, a grin playing at the corners of her mouth. Finally, she laughed and said, "OK, but only if we can take the rum with us."

"But of course!" Sokka said, "I wouldn't have it any other way!"

Laughing, they both left the closet in favor of their bedroom, bottle in hand.

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A/N: Haha, apparently my OT3 is Sokka/Toph/Rum. :D Anyway, Toph calls him Boomerang because do you really think Sokka will never get another one? ;)


End file.
